'I came for a boy and stayed for the lifestyle'

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Carly Hulls is a 27-year-old Australian, who works for an online travel agency and is based in Vienna. She talked to The Local about what brought her to Austria.

1. Where are you located and what do you do?

I live in Vienna's 14th district. I work as Brand Ambassador at TourRadar, a website for booking group tours. I also blog about my expat and travelling life at austrianadaptation.com

2. What brought you to Austria and how long have you been here?

I came here for a boy - but I've stayed for the incredible lifestyle. The boy is still a big​ part of it!

3. How did you land your job and do you have any tips for someone looking for a similar work?

I'd been working at a very mundane job for a short time and blogging on the side to keep my creative skills up. One of my blog posts 28 Ways to be Austrian went viral across Facebook and amongst Austrians in particular.

The CEO of TourRadar noticed it, checked out my bio from my blog - which listed my experience in the travel and tour industry and got in touch. It turned out to be my absolute dream job, so I'm glad I persevered with the blog, even when my mum was the only one reading it at one point!

My tips would be to find out what communities and networks are already established in Vienna. There's lots of meet-ups for the tech industry, start-up scene, native English speakers and International Women happening regularly,​ you can find details on meetup.com or Facebook.​ ​You can make a lot of great contacts that could lead to work.

Secondly, trust yourself and keep creating - I worked for months on my blog and had all sorts of crazy business ideas before finding TourRadar. If I hadn't kept going with the blog and my own outlet I'd never have landed my dream job!

4. Is it important for you to speak German in your position?

No, TourRadar is all English speaking as we're selling group tours worldwide and the company is run by two Aussies. Aside from the occasional office jokes in Deutsch we all speak English. For myself, I'm still studying German because it's such an important part of understanding the culture here.

5. What are the best and worst parts of working in Austria?

Best parts have to be the worker's rights and working hours. I couldn't believe it when people left the office early on a Friday - what bliss!

​Worst part is probably the higher taxes (for businesses and the employee) and finding work in the first place. The first few months when I didn't have any work ​at all were really stressful as my German wasn't good enough for basic admin work.